SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim ran a closed practice yesterday as advocates for sex-abuse victims questioned whether he should coach in the wake of the firing of longtime assistant Bernie Fine, who has been accused by three men of molestation.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim ran a closed practice yesterday as advocates for sex-abuse victims questioned whether he should coach in the wake of the firing of longtime assistant Bernie Fine, who has been accused by three men of molestation.

As criticism swirled about Boeheim's initial support of Fine and his harsh criticism of the accusers, the coach kept a low profile, seeking refuge in his office on the second floor of the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center.

Boeheim, who had been sharply critical of the accusers, has softened his stance 10 days after an impassioned defense of Fine, who spent 35 seasons on the bench next to Boeheim and was fired on Sunday.

The Rev. Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery, a group that supports victims of sexual abuse, said the dismissal of Fine was appropriate but didn't go far enough.

"I think Jim Boeheim should be fired or resign as well," Hoatson said yesterday. "These boys were members of the basketball program. Jim Boeheim's responsibility is to oversee that program, and the children were not safe on his watch."

Two former Syracuse ball boys were the first to accuse Fine, who has called the allegations "patently false." A third man came forward last week, accusing Fine of molesting him nine years ago.

Bobby Davis, now 39, told ESPN that Fine molested him beginning in 1984 and that the sexual contact continued until he was around 27. Davis, a ball boy for six years, told ESPN that the abuse occurred at Fine's home, at Syracuse basketball facilities and on team trips, including the 1987 Final Four. His stepbrother, Mike Lang, 45, who also was a ball boy, told ESPN that Fine began molesting him when he was in fifth or sixth grade.

Zach Tomaselli, 23, of Lewiston, Maine, said on Sunday he told police that Fine molested him in 2002 in a Pittsburgh hotel room. Tomaselli, who faces sexual-assault charges in Maine involving a 14-year-old boy, said Fine touched him "multiple" times in that one incident. During a telephone interview with the Associated Press, he said he signed an affidavit accusing Fine after a meeting with Syracuse police last week.

On Sunday, ESPN also played an audiotape, obtained and recorded by Davis, of an October 2002 telephone conversation between him and Fine's wife, Laurie.

Davis told ESPN that he made the recording, which also has been given to Syracuse police, without her knowledge because he knew he needed proof for the police to believe his accusations. ESPN said it hired a voice-recognition expert to verify the voice on the tape, and the network said it was determined to be that of Laurie Fine.

In the call to the woman, Davis repeatedly asks her what she knew about the alleged molestation.

"Do you think I'm the only one that he's ever done that to?" Davis asked.

"No … I think there might have been others, but it was geared to … there was something about you," the woman on the tape said.

On the tape, she also says she knew "everything that went on."

"Bernie has issues, maybe that he's not aware of, but he has issues. … And you trusted somebody you shouldn't have trusted …"

On Sunday, Tomaselli's father said his son is lying.

In a phone interview with the AP, Fred Tomaselli said: "I'm 100 percent sure that Bernie Fine was never in contact with Zach. He never went to Pittsburgh to a game, never been to that arena."

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